The present subject matter pertains to wireless communication systems and, more particularly, to media access control methods and apparatus for multiple network nodes.
In wireless local area networks (LANs), devices are separated by distinct media access control (MAC) protocol addresses. This is done even when the two or more units are closely related, such as processors or co-processors. These processors or co-processors typically are connected to a wireless network via a network interface card (NIC).
A wireless protocol stack can operate in two modes. The first mode is a “single MAC” mode, where the processors share one MAC address and single internet protocol (IP) address. In this case, the traffic for an embedded processor (EP) may be identified by dedicated port numbers.
The second mode is a “double MAC” mode, where both processors have different MAC addresses and different IP addresses. The processors are different and independent stations.
The “double MAC” mode is based on two upper MACs running in parallel on the processors that synchronize their activity using messages between two processors. The “double MAC” architecture may need constant synchronization between two MAC processors. A NIC supports two MAC devices and solves conflicts between commands received between the two processors. When both processors are working in parallel, the data frames are sent and received through two independent wireless stacks.